The Cecil Whig., 1887-11-26
THE LITTLE SHOE.
From The San Francisco ChronicIe.

Iwenty-siX years ago a little child
toddled from its mothers doorstep on
the shores of Hafmoon bay to its play
ground on tie smooth, pebbly beach,
where it was accustomed to pass the
sunny hours in innocent play, gather
ing shiny shells, bright pebbles, and
gay sea MOSES to carry home to add
to its little hoard Of treasures. There
was no thought of danger in the
mothers mind as she saw her little one
go with unsteady steps down toward
the shore, where the wavelets, tapping
on the strand, were throwing Us the
objects for which the little toddler made
daily search. The hours passed on
and at length the mother, becoring
anxious at the prolonged absence of
her baby went to the door to call her
hoce. She scanned the long stretch
of the beach, but the little one was
nowhere to be seen. The tide which
was at the ebb when the little one left
her home had come in, ard there was
nothing but white sand to be seen as
far as the eye could reach. a search
among the neighbors' houses brought
no tidings of the lite one, and the
mother, now thoroughly alarmed, as
sisted by other members of the family,
began an anxious search for the miss
ing babe. The afternoon and evening
wore away, and through the night the
friends and neighbors kept up the
search among the sandhills and shrubs
which lined the beach, but without
avail. Not a trace could be found of
the child.
The hours heightened into days and
the search had been abandoned so far
as hopes of finding the child alive were
concerned, but still the sorrowing
mother made her daily search along
the beach where her baby had been
wont to play, hoping to find something
which would give at least clew TO the
fate of her darling. One day, the third
or fourth after the disappearance of the
child, the mother found a little bundle
of clothing, wet and torn by the waves,
which covered the remains of her little
one, the body having been cast up by
the sea during the night.
Catching the body up, she ran with
it to the little house from which the
light seemed to have fled with The loss
of the child.
The little body was prepared by ten
der hands for burial, but it was found
that the right foot of the little one was
missing. 1t was supposed that the
child had fallen from a reef of rocks
which ran out into the deep water and
had been drowned, and that some fish
or sea monster had eaten off the foot.
There seemed to be no mystery about
the death, and the other children of
the family were wont to listen with awe
as the mother told in the cleaning how
the little sister wandered away from
home and was drowned. The children
grew up and married and had little ones
of their own, and the grandmother told
again to a new set of auditors how her
little baby girl went out TO play and
was killed by the cruel sea.
Simple as the death of the chill d
seemed at the time, it turns out to have
been one of those mysteries of the sea
which are only revealed by accident.
A short time ago of the sons of the old
lady, and brother of the lost girl,
picked up on the beach piece of a
large abalone shell which had been
thrown up by the tine. He was at
tracted by the bright colors of the shell
and as he turned the shell to look at
the inside he was astonished to find at
| tached to the interior of the shell the
perfect representation of a child's shoe.
Even to the little break in the toe,
where the leather had worn away, every
detail was presented in the brilliant
Colors which are characteristic OF the
interior of the abalone shell, little think
ing OF the mystery revealed by the re-
production by nature of baby's shoe,
the young man carried the shell home
as curiosity. The first person to whom
he showed it was his mother No
sooner did the old lady see the curiosity
than she exclaimed: at is my baby's
shoe The shoe of my little girl that
was lost twenty-sl1 years ago.
The rest of the family ridiculed the
idea, but gong to a drawer, such as
most mothers have in their home, she
produced the mate to the shoe. \
careful comparison showed that the
Gme-incrusted she in the shell and the
memento of the dead child, carefully
kept by loving mother through the
long years that she had mourned her
little one, were undoubtedly mates.
The mystery of the child's DEATH was
revealed at last. Any one who knows
the nature and habits of the abalone
can readily understand what occurred.
The little one had ventured out in the
rocky reef and in her clamberlng had
slipped from the Shiny, moss-covered
rocks into the shallow water below.
Perhaps nothing more than wetting
would have happened to her, but as
fate would hav. it her tiny foot slipped
Jetween the rocks and the edge Of a
huge abalone which was Clinging to the
rock. The shell at once closed on the
tender ankle, and the little one was
prisoner, to be held till the rising tide
swept over her and put an end to the